The St. Louis Blues will play the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Convention First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
St. Louis, which won the Stanley Cup closing season and done first in the Western Convention all over the weird and wonderful season, became 0-2-1 in the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to attain as the No. 4 seed in the West. Vancouver eliminated the Minnesota Wild in four video games in a most efficient-of-5 series and may maybe maybe additionally presumably be the No. 5 seed.
Game 1 is Wednesday (10: 30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
“Vancouver has a vary of younger guys who’re in truth appropriate players, (agree with) a vary of velocity,” Blues coach Craig Berube talked about. “They’re a harmful crew offensively, they in truth come at you with velocity. We’ll prefer to attain a appropriate job of checking, doing the honest things. And in utter that they additionally agree with a appropriate vitality play. We took too many penalties (in the round-robin), so it be famous we prefer to put out of the penalty box.”
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Ryan O’Reilly led the Blues with three assists, and David Perron and Colton Parayko every scored two dreams in the round-robin. Jordan Binnington became 0-2-0 with a 4.10 dreams-against moderate and an .895 set up percentage. Jake Allen allowed one aim on 38 shots in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
Quinn Hughes scored six points (one aim, 5 assists) for the Canucks in the Qualifiers, which Vancouver entered as the No. 7 seed. Bo Horvat (two dreams, two assists), Elias Pettersson (one aim, three assists) and Christopher Tanev (one aim, three assists) every scored four points. Jacob Markstrom became 3-1-0 with a 2.27 GAA, .926 set up percentage and one shutout.
“They’re each and every in truth appropriate teams,” Canucks coach Travis Green talked about earlier than incandescent their opponent. “I mean, it be ultimate evident in case you have watched them play the closing few years, a Stanley Cup winner (St. Louis) and a crew that became on the verge of going to the Stanley Cup (Dallas), so with out reference to crew we play this is capable of maybe be a appropriate matchup, a exhausting matchup.”
St. Louis became 1-1-1 against Vancouver this season. Five players scored two points every, including a aim and an succor every from Tyler Bozak, Alex Pietrangelo and Jaden Schwartz. Binnington became 1-0-1 with a 1.87 GAA and .939 set up percentage. Allen allowed two dreams on 25 shots in a 3-1 loss on Jan. 27.
“We positively didn’t play our most efficient in these three (round-robin) video games, however I assume we progressively obtained higher,” Allen talked about. “… We prefer to dwelling in on Vancouver. It’ll be a appropriate utter for us.”
J.T. Miller led the Canucks with four points (three dreams, one succor) against the Blues, and Horvat scored two dreams. Markstrom allowed two dreams on 27 shots in a 2-1 shootout loss on Nov. 5. Backup Thatcher Demko became 2-0-0 with a 1.92 GAA and .946 set up percentage.
“You peek at it, each and every teams, St. Louis, Dallas, one is a Stanley Cup champion crew, in utter that they positively know what it takes, and Dallas has a vary of skills, and each and every positively more than us,” Canucks forward Tanner Pearson talked about. “So whoever it is far, it be positively going to be a tall task and with fairly luck a ultimate appropriate series.”
This may maybe possibly be the fourth playoff series between the teams. Vancouver won every of the outdated three, including the latest in four video games in the 2009 Western Convention Quarterfinals.
That is Vancouver’s first postseason appearance since 2015. Essentially the most attention-grabbing-of-7 series will likely be played at Rogers Procedure in Edmonton, the hub city for the Western Convention.
NHL.com employees writer Tracey Myers and unprejudiced correspondent Kevin Woodley contributed to this listing
